"Takin' Twenty" with the Virginian Brethren by Skip Salmon

NW Mailing List nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Thu May 5 08:11:54 EDT 2011


Last night I had the pleasure of "Takin' Twenty" with seven of the
Brethren, and Friends of the Virginian Railway. Our friend Eddie
Mooneyham called me about 3 PM and told me the C&O 614 steam giant,
which had been pulled out of display at the Virginia Museum of
Transportation in Roanoke on Tuesday, had derailed. The plans were
changed for this precious artifact for lack of a train crew, and she was
being moved back into VMT to wait for the weekend for movement, when she
went to ground. Plans are to transfer her to the C&O Historical Society
facility in Clifton Forge, via Buckingham Branch RR and CSX. I took
several photos of the re-railing progress and showed them, still in my
camera, to the Brethren. This prompted several memories of VGN
derailments and delays.

The ebay report this time includes the following VGN items sold: Photo
of a VGN PA #214 in August 1954 taking on water, for $30.77; 8X10 color
photo of EL-2b #126 in Roanoke 8-31-57 for $40.99; H. Reid book (1961
first edition) for $31.00; 1948 VGN Annual Report for $27.98; EL-C
Instruction manual for $51.00; EL-2b Operator's manual for $51.00, and
an AG model paperweight from Lima Locomotive for $51.00.

The Jewel from the Past is from March 31, 2005: "During this discussion,
it was learned that on the VGN, laborers were called 'truckers' from the
time when 'less than a car load' box cars had to be loaded and unloaded
with two-wheel trucks. Also I discovered that the coal that went to
Sewells Point was not weighed in Roanoke, but just before it was dumped
in Norfolk. Also a lot of knuckle pins were shipped to Europe in the
coal ships along with some knuckles that fell of when the car was dumped
because of missing cotter pins".

Passed around was a photo that our friend Roger Link sent me, showing
destruction of trestle #7, on the old abandoned N&W Abingdon Branch by
recent tornadoes in the area. Also passed around was the latest June
2011 "Trains" Magazine. This issue has an outstanding photo on pages 72
and 73 of a July 2010 NS Train 37Q, west of Radford on the Bristol Line.
Another item passed was the April "NRHS News". This newsletter
highlights the 40th Anniversary of Amtrak. The cover color photo is of
one the four Amtrak P42DC diesel locomotives that have been painted in
the "bloody nose" scheme, Amtrak once used. One of the Brethren
commented when seeing this photo "you can paint a pig red/white/blue,
but it's still a pig".

Of course much of the talk was about our Navy Seals killing OBL in
Pakistan last Sunday. Also we talked some about the Royal Wedding of
last week and one of the guys said he watched a CMT tribute to the
event, by sitting for several hours in front of his TV watching a
marathon of "My Big Redneck Wedding". Glen McLain, when asked about the
wedding, said "I didn't get an invitation".

I showed the Brethren a "goody bag" from last Saturday's Norfolk
Southern Roanoke Locomotive Shop Open House (for employees and their
families) to celebrate working one million man hours (3-1/2 years)
without an accident. They remembered the open house by the VGN in
Roanoke in 1957 for the NRHS Convention, but no other special on-site
activities for employees and their families.

Also posted in our restaurant were several fliers to "Save the Dates" of
November 5 and 6 this year. The Roanoke Chapter NRHS is sponsoring an
Amtrak excursion, Roanoke to Abingdon on Saturday with an additional
extension trip on to Bristol and return; and Roanoke to Bluefield and
return on Sunday.

Last night I wore my brand new boxcar red T-Shirt, bought from "Junkman"
Aubrey Wiley, with "WHEN EMPTY, RETURN TO ROANOKE, VIRGINIA" and a VGN
logo on it. Got several comments from the Brethren about it including
"the way you eat, you'll never make it back to Roanoke".

Time to pull the pin on this one!

Departing Now from V248,

Skip Salmon

CCCLXVI

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